Helping others experience a more intimate relationship with God

Anxiety and Prayer

We were sharing prayer requests the other night in our bible study group, and two of us asked prayer for anxiety. One person had been struggling with anxiety for two weeks. I shared that I had been struggling with it for two months. Neither of us had a clear idea about what the cause was.

What is anxiety?

The dictionary says that it is a feeling of worry, unease, muscle tension, and fear. Anxiety does not feel good, as we all know.

So, how can prayer help? And what is prayer?

Prayer is simply talking to God.

God says prayer can help a lot with our anxiety. “Don’t be anxious about anything. Instead pray about everything that is bothering you. I will give you peace as you ask for My help. And don’t forget to thank Me for all the ways I am helping you” (Philippians 4:6-7, paraphrased).

But what if we don’t know what’s causing us anxiety, like my friend and I don’t.

God has an answer for this question as well.

“Ask Me to search your heart, and I will show you what is making you anxious. I will then lead you into experiencing My supernatural peace of mind” (Psalm 139:23-24, paraphrased).

However, we do know a lot of the stuff that is making us anxious. I learned years ago that when I took each known burden to God in prayer, my confusion would begin to dissipate. I would become clearer thinking again.

God promises us in Psalm 34:4 that, “If you seek Me in prayer, I will help you escape from your anxiety (paraphrased).”

But you may say, “I did seek God in prayer and I’m still worried–I still feel anxious. What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with God?”

God encourages us not to give up on prayer. “Ask and it shall been given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7).

In other words, God wants us to be persistent; not to give up. We need to keep asking until he delivers us from our anxiety.

We need to keep in mind that God loves us. He doesn’t want us to suffer needlessly. He says, “Cast all your anxiety on [Me] because [I] care for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Yet, if we are honest, most of us experience anxiety because we stubbornly want to muscle our way through life instead of asking for God’s help. Often, we know deep within our self that life can overwhelm us at any time. And that’s scary. That creates anxiety in us.

Which can be good. I learned in seminary that anxiety is a call from God to pray. It’s the idiot light on the dashboard that says that there’s something wrong.

Somehow we have become disconnected from the reality that God Almighty loves us and is watching out for our best interest. Prayer can help us to reconnect to this reality.

So, as we experience anxiety, let’s not forget to pray. Let’s not just treat the symptoms of anxiety through relaxation exercises, enjoyable experiences, and sleep.

Let’s also seek to get to the source of our anxiety, which often is not resting in God’s care and protection through prayer (Matthew 11:28-30).